Most conventional hopper cars fall into two basic categories: those cars having transversely extending hopper doors, and those cars having longitudinally extending hopper doors. In conventional hopper cars, latch means are provided, usually at opposite ends of each hopper door, to secure it in its closed position. When these latches are released by workmen, the door will swing downwardly to its open position under its own weight and under the weight of the lading pressing against the hopper door. When the load has been discharged, the hopper door must be moved manually to its closed position and re-latched on both sides.
Such a manual door opening and closing procedure has a number of inherent problems. For example, each hopper door is of substantial size and weight, with the result that considerable physical force is required to swing the hopper door from its open to its closed position. Another problem with a manual door opening operation lies in the fact that the hopper door hinge means are subjected to uneven wrenching or twisting forces if the latches on either side of the doors are not released simultaneously. Furthermore, such doors are sometimes latched on one side only, the other side being forgotten or inaccessible. These problems are magnified in newer and more advanced types of hopper cars which are characterized by increased size, greatly increased capacity, and larger and heavier hopper doors.
In recent years prior art workers have turned their attention to these problems and have devised various types of door opening systems to reduce or eliminate these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,684 teaches a fully automatic door opening system for a hopper car having transverse doors arranged in opposed, cooperating pairs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,609 teaches another door actuating system for cooperating pairs of opposed hopper doors. This system can be applied to both transverse and longitudinal pairs of hopper doors. U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,757 teaches a manually operable door actuating and locking system for each opposed pair of hopper doors of a hopper car of the type having its hopper doors arranged in transversely extending opposed pairs.
The present invention is directed to the provision of a manually operable door actuating and locking apparatus for railroad hopper cars of the type having a longitudinal center sill and pairs of longitudinally extending chutes, located opposite each other and on each side of the center sill. The chutes of a pair are configured to discharge lading to each side of the hopper car, and each chute is provided with its own hopper door. The manually operable hopper door actuating and locking apparatus of the present invention enables the hopper doors of a pair of chutes located opposite each ofther to be unlocked and opened from one side of the hopper car. The apparatus requires each door of the pair to be closed from its respective side of the car, for safety reasons.
As used herein and in the claims, the term "manually operable" is intended to refer to actuating and locking means operable by one or more workmen provided with appropriate hand tools such as a pry bar or the like, as opposed to fully automatic systems of the type taught in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,187,684 and 3,596,609.